LASIK Eye Center of Silicon Valley - Dr. Gary Kawesch

More and more people switch to contact lenses every year, and as a result, contact lens infections are becoming increasingly more common. One of the ways you can avoid any type of contact lens infection is by correcting your vision at our San Francisco, California ophthalmology office.

Contact lens infections can occur in a variety of different forms:

• Corneal Ulcer -Develops when a microscopic parasite breeds in the cornea. People most at risk for this are swimmers and people who practice poor hygiene.
• GPC (also called Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis) -Can be caused simply by a reaction from your body toward the contact lenses.
• Solution Irritation -While not as serious as other forms of contact lens infection, some people can become irritated and develop an infection from using certain types of contact lens solutions.

• ReZoom
• Advanced Surface Ablation
• LASIK
• PRK
• LASEK
• ReSTOR
• Crystalens

LASIK provides improved vision almost immediately but the total improvement is not always evident for perhaps three months. You will have follow-up visits with one of our LASIK doctors – first on the day following your surgery, then after a week, a month and decreasing intervals for about a year. That way we can monitor your vision improvement and make sure no complications arise.

In the first three months it is common to experience temporary vision changes. For the first few days after the procedure, you may be more sensitive to bright lights, it may be more difficult to drive at night, and you may experience blurred or faint double vision.

For many people, these side effects subside in days or weeks, but there can also be fluctuations in your vision over the three months. You may see haloes, more glare, or changes in your distance vision. If these symptoms continue to occur after 6 months have passed, you may consider having revision surgery.

LASIK has provided millions of people with improved vision. If you are curious about LASIK or any other vision correction procedure, please visit our LASIK FAQ or LASIK Alternatives pages to learn how you can correct your vision.

Please contact our LASIK office today to schedule your initial consultation. During that consultation we will listen to your desires and concerns and answer your questions. You can meet our staff and take a look around the office. If you choose, you can make an appointment for a full eye examination.

20/20 vision is a term developed by optometrists and ophthalmologists to determine what a “normal” person can see when they are 20 feet from an object. Many people who do not have 20/20 vision require glasses or contacts to assist them in seeing more normally. We perform LASIK surgery at our San Francisco, California to improve people’s vision so they no longer require contacts or glasses.

If you have 20/20 vision, when you stand 20 feet from an eye chart, you can see what most other people can see. However, if you are near or far sighted, you may have 20/40 or 20/100 vision, which means when you stand 20 feet away from the chart, you see the same detail that a normal person would see 40 or 100 feet from the chart.

Much of what determines how well you can see involves the shape of the eyeball. When light enters the eye, it passes through the pupil to the retina in the back of the eye. If your eyes are too steep or too elongated, it can cause the light to focus improperly.

During LASIK, a laser is used to reshape the corneal tissue, and allow light to hit the retina properly, providing you with improved vision. LASIK can correct nearly any prescription, and will almost always improve vision enough for you to pass a driving test without glasses or contacts.

If you would like to learn more about your vision and whether LASIK can improve what you see, please contact us at the Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley today to schedule your initial LASIK consultation.

LASIK is a fantastic vision correction procedure that can provide you with clearer vision almost immediately after the procedure is complete. When people from Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco come to our office, we provide them with a few guidelines to follow during the days after their LASIK surgery.

Immediately after your LASIK procedure, you may feel an itching, burning, scratching, or irritating sensation and your eyes might tear or water for a day or two. This is completely normal, and it is important that you do not touch or rub your eyes because it can dislodge the corneal flap. Your eyes may also be more sensitive to lights and your vision can be blurry or hazy for a few days.

We will schedule several follow-up visits for you so we can monitor your healing. But if you begin to feel any serious pain, you are encouraged to come to us as soon as possible because this could be a sign of infection or other complication.

After your LASIK surgery, you cannot wear any eye makeup, creams, lotions, or any other facial product because they can increase your chances of infection. It is important not to have anything get beneath the flap while it is healing. You will need to protect your eyes from any hits or bumps for at least a month.

To learn more about what to expect after your LASIK procedure, please contact our LASIK surgery office to schedule your initial consultation.

No, vision correction done with a laser is not painful. We first give you numbing eyedrops and make you comfortable on the patient bed that is part of the Custom LASIK hardware. You will feel only a slight sensation of pressure some of the time.

In addition to the more popular LASIK procedure, we also perform both LASEK and PRK procedures at our San Francisco, California ophthalmology office. Much like LASIK, PRK and LASEK both use lasers to reshape the cornea for vision correction, but there are differences between the three:

• LASIK-A small flap is created in the cornea and is folded back. The laser then reshapes the underlying corneal layers, and the flap is replaced.
  
• LASEK-A flap is created in the epithelium, which is a very thin layer of cells on the outermost part of the cornea. The laser corrects the shape of the cornea, and the thin flap is replaced so the cornea can heal.
  
• PRK-The epithelium is completely removed so that the laser can correct the shape of the cornea. This layer of cells will grow back after the procedure.